The Three Worlds Of Gulliver
by VampPhile
Summary: Three different birthdays, three very different times.


"The Three Worlds of Gulliver"

By Rachel Brody

2018

The calming strains of a new album seeped through the air of Lucas' cabin, taking over his mind and carrying him far away from everything here, everything he wanted to get away from. The music always did that, always took him far from this tin can he'd come to know as home. All he had to do was let himself go to it, and let himself feel the pulsing rhythm deep inside.

The sound of the drums in the background of the track reminded him of the ticking of a clock he was trying to ignore, a clock that was slowly running it's way toward zero...almost nine-forty-eight, February twenty-eighth.

Almost...almost..

He banished the thoughts, though, not willing to think them. Last time he'd checked the clock it had been just after nine thirty, that as when he'd popped the disk in and started blaring the music like this...

This wasn't the first birthday he'd spent alone, and he was close to positive it wouldn't be the last. He'd toyed with the idea of telling another member of the crew why he'd been melancholy all day. The better part of the week, actually. He'd finally come to the conclusion that there wasn't any point. His parents never remembered his birthday, so why the hell should the crew? Bridger, Krieg, O'Neill, Ortiz... Sure, they were his friends, but he doubted they would have gone to the trouble of looking up his birthday, and he wasn't about to start telling people, "Hey, guess what today is." He didn't need that kind of attention. Didn't need their attention in the first place, anyway.

He had the music. As long as he could keep his mind focused on that, he was set. No worries. No memories and no tears...

But who was he kidding? Even denying the thoughts made them come that much faster, all the times as a kid when his mom and dad had forgotten why it was they were supposed to have canceled that meeting... They'd never been especially good at remembering things, anyway.

In the middle of a guitar riff, there was a knock at his door. He raised an eyebrow, wondering what was going on now. Someone needed a new computer program, maybe, or else Krieg was looking for an accomplice to his latest get-rich-quick scheme...either way, Lucas really only wanted to be left alone.

The knock came again, a little harder. Lucas stood. "Yeah?" he called. Still, no answer. With a sigh of exasperation, the teen stood and stalked to the door, remembering to shut off his music before he yanked the door open.

Revealing an empty corridor.

"Yeah, real cute," he muttered, before his eyes fell to the deck, and the small package that lay there. Wrapped in brown paper, with a thin ribbon tied around it. "Lucas" was written in simple script, black pen. He leaned over and picked it up, wondering who...

Back inside his room, the door shut, he quickly pulled the paper off and tossed the ribbon aside.

Three slim paperback books slipped into his hands. He turned them over, reading the covers. "The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy", "The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe", and "Life, The Universe, And Everything", all three by Douglas Adams.

A small smile crept across Lucas' lips as he opened up the front cover of the first book, and read the inscription that had been written there.

Lucas--

Happy Birthday. I know you mentioned liking sci-fi, so here're a couple three books I thought you might like...careful though, don't read them too fast or they'll give you a headache. Just a thought. For a laugh, pretend Prefect is the Commander. And don't tell him I said that.

Your friend,

Ben Krieg

Smiling, Lucas placed the books carefully on the edge of the stand by his bed. He'd have to remember to thank Krieg the next time he saw him.

*

2022

"Hey, Wolenczak. C'mon!"

Lucas looked up from the top bunk, where he had been lying and reading over some old papers, to see Tony Piccolo standing in the doorway of the quarters they shared. 

"Not now, Tony, I'm kind of busy..."

Piccolo shook his head and crossed the room, then grabbed Lucas' books and pulled them away. "Too much readin'll fry your brain, Luke, let's get a move on 'fore we're late."

"For what?"

Piccolo shrugged. "Who knows? Bridger said f'everybody t'meet him at the moonpool."

Lucas sighed. "Look, Tony..."

"Look Tony nothin'. Get your rear in gear, preppie."

Lucas scowled. "I am not a--" He broke off as Piccolo took him by the arm and started to pull him off the bunk, only barely catching himself before he really did fall. "__Tony_!_" he yelled, "Cut it out!" Piccolo immediately let go. Not having expected it to be so easy, Lucas wasn't prepared for the ease in pressure, and he overcompensated.

Next thing he knew, his fall was broken by Piccolo, who wound up sandwiched between Lucas and the floor. With an annoyed sigh, Piccolo pushed Lucas off to one side, stood, then offered the younger man a hand. "C'mon, Lucas."

Taking the assistance, Piccolo helped Lucas to his feet. After dusting himself off, Lucas opened his mouth to ask the first question in his mind. "What was that--"

"No questions, kid, c'mon."

And with that, Lucas found himself dragged down to the moonpool, with no idea of why, or how long it was going to take, or why all the lights in the room were closed, or...

"__Surprise__!" A deafening shout rang through the room, and it was all Lucas could do not to jump backward. The fact that Tony had him in an iron-vise grip had something to do with that, too.

The lights came up quickly, and Lucas looked around as members of the crew jumped out at him. His jaw dropped as he realized what he'd forgotten, and they'd all remembered. After last year's disaster with his father, though...well, he'd said he wasn't going to let birthdays matter so much, and he'd kept that promise.

Nice of the rest of the crew not to know about it, though.

The afternoon was a whirlwind of gifts and slaps on the back and the words "Happy Birthday, Lucas!" being called at him from around the room, and after the party, around the ship.

That night, Lucas waited until he heard Piccolo come in from the shift he'd been working-- the Seaman had pulled an all-nighter, so to speak, to host the birthday party in the moonpool-- before saying anything. "Hey, Tony!"

Piccolo's voice was weary, but Lucas could tell he was grinning. "Yeah?"

"Thanks, man."

"Hey, no prob." A pause. "S'cool, y'know, an' m'glad y'had a good time." Then, a few muffled words as Piccolo sank into his pillow, or so Lucas presumed.

He pushed himself up and leaned over the edge of the bed. "Huh? Didn't catch that last part."

Piccolo grinned up at him. "I said, s'a shame Bridger wouldn't let me invite a coupla girls from--"

"Tony!" Lucas yelled, grinning, as he brought a pillow down and beaned Piccolo with it.

No sooner had he brought the pillow down than Piccolo grabbed it and pulled it away, then rolled off the bed and stood. "Hey, you wanna fight?" he asked the teen, grinning.

Lucas returned the smile, and hopped off the bed, landing easily on his feet. "En garde!" he yelled, as he grabbed a pillow off Tony's bed.

Piccolo shook his head. "You dunno whatcha gettin' into, Wolenczak!" he said.

Before the hour had passed, the pillows in their shared quarters had taken almost as playful a beating as the two who had wielded them. Breathless and grinning, Lucas was the one who made the first attempt to call the pillow fight to a halt. "Hey, Tony, don't you have to__oof__!" He was forced to break off as a pillow hit him in the face, falling to the floor as Piccolo vaulted onto the top bunk to grab one of Lucas' pillows.

Lucas yelped as he dove for cover under Piccolo's bunk, dragging the blanket off the bunk and under with him.

"Yeah, right, like I'm gonna give up!" But Lucas could tell from Piccolo's voice that the other was just as exhausted as himself. 

"Truce?!" he yelled.

A moment's silence as his opponent thought it over. "Yeah, truce sounds cool!"

Waiting a moment to decide if Tony meant it or not, Lucas rolled out from under the bed. Piccolo was already lying on the lower bunk, fast asleep.

Lucas watched his friend's sleeping form for a moment. "Thanks, Tony," he said quietly, before he climbed up the wall to the top bunk. 

Sleep came easier to him that night than it had in months.

*

2033

"Ensign Wolenczak." 

As soon as Hudson nodded the now-familiar signal for "at ease", Lucas relaxed. "You wanted to see me, Sir?" he asked.

Hudson nodded. "Yes." 

Lucas' mind was racing as he tried to figure out what Hudson wanted to talk to him for. Had he found out about the party he, Tony, Henderson, Ford, and Tim had the night before? Yeah, so it hadn't been much of a party, per se...just some friends and some drinks that the others wouldn't let him near anyway. Drinks Ford had said Hudson would kill him for not reporting, but Tony and Henderson had managed to convince him were "only a couple beers"... Ford had promised not to say a word, and Lucas trusted the Commander enough by now not to think he might have gone back on his word...but what else was there?

He'd made sure the sensor systems were in running order, he'd checked a couple of the experiments he had running in Bridger's old Botany lab...he still couldn't believe Hudson had let him re-convert it to that purpose, but hell, God moved in mysterious ways, and on the __seaQuest__, Hudson was god...

"Ensign, I heard it was your birthday yesterday."

Silently, Lucas thanked the gods he was as pale as he was. Otherwise, he was sure he wouldn't have gone a couple notches paler. "Yes, sir." Good. His voice didn't shake.

Hudson nodded, and walked around his desk, then pulled open a drawer. "Ensign..." he said, looking through the drawer and finally coming up with a small box.

"Sir?"

Taking the box in one hand, Hudson pushed the door shut with the other, then looked at Lucas for a moment. "Ensign Wolenczak, think fast." Almost before Lucas could react, Hudson had tossed the box at him. Lucas reached out and grabbed it as it flew toward him. He looked at Hudson questioningly. The captain nodded. "Open it up," Hudson ordered. 

Was Lucas imagining things, or was there the hint of a smile on Hudson's face?

Never mind that, he thought, as he opened the box. He was too relieved that Hudson wasn't going to ream him out for the party to waste time wondering about--

His thoughts abruptly ceased as he saw what was in the box. He looked up at Hudson. "Sir?!" He winced inwardly. Not the squeak, please, he thought that was over with, that thing his voice did where it went up an octave and a half and he sounded like he was thirteen years old again...

Hudson most definitely was smiling, he realized. With his eyes, if not his lips. "Ensign Wolenczak," he said, "Captain Bridger and I had a talk about you the other day. This is one of the things that came up."

Lucas nodded dumbly. 

"Now...he wanted to give you his bars, as he'd intended to give them to his son before Robert disappeared." Hudson paused, as though making sure that Lucas was listening closely. "He realized that he hadn't been entirely supportive of your decision to join the Navy, and thought this might make amends for that, at least in part."

It seemed his head was stuck...because all Lucas could do as he listened was nod slowly. When there was silence for several seconds, Lucas looked at his captain. "Sir..." he started.

Hudson nodded for him to continue.

Lucas' gaze fell to the box. "There're two sets of ensign's bars in here."

"Yes, there are."

"What...who...?"

Hudson gave him a chiding look. "Ensign, I had heard you were a brilliant young man. Don't disappoint me now."

There was a tinge of humor in Hudson's voice as Lucas finally made himself stop nodding like some sort of idiot, and looked up, his eyes wide. "Sir?" 

For a moment, Lucas almost thought he saw Hudson stifle a chuckle. Then the captain returned to the nearly-devoid-of-all-emotion expression he usually displayed. "Yes, Ensign?"

"You...?" And that was all he could get out.

Hudson nodded. "Yes, Ensign."

For a moment, Lucas stared. Then he broke into a grin. "Thanks, Sir." When Hudson looked up, Lucas continued without waiting. "I...this really means a lot to me, Sir. And tell Captain Bridger I said thanks, too."

Stiffly, Hudson nodded. "Of course. Dismissed."

Unable to wipe the grin off his face, Lucas quickly left.

Hudson watched the young man walk out, and made himself a mental note to give Bridger a call and tell him how much his gift had meant to the ensign. He chuckled inwardly, recalling the conversation he'd had with the other captain the day before. How Bridger had sent the package weeks ago, and called to make sure Hudson remembered to give it to him, and how, when Hudson had realized what was going on, they'd argued over who had more of a right to present a gift like this...

Hudson wondered if Wolenczak really realized how much he meant to Bridger. To either captain. To anyone.

THE END

Copyright 1997

Rachel Brody


End file.
